‘… Bill Gates weighed in with his condemnation. “I think that the book actually did damage the generosity of rich world nations,” he said in a 2013 interview. “I have read it and I think she didn’t know much about aid and what aid is doing.” ‘ [My emphasis]

Sorry Bill — think again, haven’t you got that the other way around?

“Don’t just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. Is the hypothesis necessary? Is the converse true? What happens in the classical special case? What about the degenerate cases? Where does the proof use the hypothesis?” – Paul Halmos

Bill Gates is not wrong, always — just not right in this “honest disagreement.” In fact, Bill Gates, a Mastermind Rational, is pretty savvy investor in the world of technological ideas. He is very smart and very rich. For defeating global diseases, he and Melinda’s foundation is doing a great job. Unfortunately, his former company he co-founded, Microsoft, has always made or copied mediocre software. Moreover, on people matters, the nerd Rational Bill is out of his league, so he sometimes needs to take his cues from his Roman Catholic wife. The only problem with this disagreement between Moyo versus Bill and Melinda Gates is: global “charity” money talks louder than it walks versus the diffuse local and global trade that doesn’t talk loudly but does the walk. Inter-governmental “charity” is the currency of Western politicians for getting elected, and for despots, tyrants, and “terrorists” to grab and hang on to power. The Western Political Religion of Colonial Charity is still the most popular philanthropic model out there in Western countries.

Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.
— Margaret Thatcher

Dambisa Moyo is use to the criticism. Condescending or not.

Dambisa Felicia Moyo, Fieldmarshal Rational, (born 2 February 1969) is a Zambian-born author and international economist who analyses the macroeconomy, foreign aid impact, and global affairs. She is the author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa (2009), How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – And the Stark Choices that Lie Ahead (2011)and Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World (June 2012). [Wikipedia, revised]

In response to Gates criticism, Moyo said “To cast aside the arguments I raised in Dead Aid at a time when we have witnessed the transformative economic success of countries like China, Brazil and India, belittles my experiences, and those of hundreds of millions of Africans, and others around the world who suffer the consequences of the aid system every day.”

Moyo argues that economic growth is the most important factor in reducing worldwide poverty. Prosperity will create a middle class that stabilizes the country, as citizens demand a say in how they’re governed. Thus, the first steps in the development of a healthy state are not the establishment of accountable governments, transparent legal systems and more overall freedom, in her opinion. “Economic growth is the prerequisite for a liberal democracy, not the other way around.” For example, in her home continent, Africa, Botswana originally one of the poorest countries is now one of the fastest growing economies, the least corrupt country in Africa, that has little foreign aid, and has a high level of economic freedom compared to other African countries. Other examples, across the globe, such as Chile, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are cited.

For the Fieldmarshal, there must always be a goal-directed reason for doing anything, and people’s feelings usually are not sufficient reason. They prefer decisions to be based on impersonal data, want to work from well thought-out plans, like to use engineered operations – and they expect others to follow suit. They are ever intent on reducing bureaucratic red tape, task redundancy, and aimless confusion in the workplace, and they are willing to dismiss employees who cannot get with the program and increase their efficiency. Although Fieldmarshals are tolerant of established procedures, they can and will abandon any procedure when it can be shown to be ineffective in accomplishing its goal. Fieldmarshals root out and reject ineffectiveness and inefficiency, and are impatient with repetition of error. [Please Understand Me II]

She has seen directly what Western charity has done to many countries, including Zambia. As an international economist, her passport contains stamps from 75 countries. This is remarkable in the fact, Moyo was born in 1969 and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. In 1966 Zambia gained independence from Great Britain being Northern Rhodesia, a “protectorate”. She was not issued a birth certificate due to Zambian law at the time of her birth, because she was black. However, innovation is always from the edges. The new generations will learn from the old generations, and then go beyond. The problem is the old generation often have some beliefs [hypotheses] that are not grounded in reality or the future.

Now, if only Bill would get with the program! [and not copy the mediocre]